"Wyatt's School Brawl"

by Josh Pahutka

Last week’s assignment was to write 10 microfiction stories, 100-150 words a piece. These stories should have a common metaphor, theme, or motif that ties them to one another.

Here is an accounting of a school fight. It would never happen at Second Baptist School, but Josh knows it happens somewhere.

Story 1 From Wyatt’s Viewpoint: The blood was oozing from my elbow and I doubled over in pain. I wanted to pounce on Leo just once more time, but Dr. Joseph held me back. 

“Why are you two always fighting?” He demanded. I didn’t respond. I never could at these times. I knew I should have just told the closest teacher, but I didn’t.

“Leo, go to the nurse and get cleaned up,” said Dr. Joseph “And you” he pointed at me “Straight to my office” he yelled. As usual at times like this, I walked alone to Dr. Joseph’s office and as usual my mom would probably show up in about 5 minutes. When I got to Dr. Joseph’s office I waited for 3 minutes until he arrived. The second he sat down he said the same thing as usual, “Why didn’t you tell a teacher? You know violence isn’t how we settle things.” 

Story 2: From Leo’s Viewpoint: I felt so good about myself because I had just picked on Wyatt for his dumb haircut when he felt an extreme amount of pain rush through his eye. He knew from experience that you shouldn’t pick on Wyatt, but this one time was an exception. His haircut was so bad and so ugly that he had to. But, as usual, when this happened Wyatt had beaten me up and this time it was bad. I couldn’t see out of my right eye and I was pretty sure my hand was broken. Luckily Dr. Joseph helped get Wyatt off me before I could break any more bones. Dr. Joseph told me to go to the nurse and so I did. When I arrived, the nurse said the same thing as usual: 

"Violence is not the way to solve problems, Leo. How many times do I have to tell you?”  

Story 3: From Asher’s Viewpoint: I had just gotten to my locker when I heard a commotion. I heard Wyatt insult Leo about how bad his grades were when suddenly, a kid walking by pushed Wyatt into Leo. I was Wyatt’s best friend, I wanted to help, but I didn’t. This isn’t Wyatt’s Falt I thought. It appeared that Leo thought that Wyatt had purposely jumped on him, so he retaliated. Leo swung his fist directly at Wyatt’s eye and he was about to hit the other eye when Wyatt stopped him. Wyatt slammed his head into an open locker behind them, and Leo hit the ground hard. Then, out of nowhere, Dr. Joseph came into the hall and instantly pounced on Wyatt. Dr. Joseph told everyone in the hallway to be quiet, then said disappointedly, 

“If there is any more fighting at this school, you will be suspended. Violence is never the answer.” 

Story 4: From Alejandro’s Viewpoint: Wyatt and I had just finished walking out of Algebra class when he turned the corner and ran into Leo. Leo thinking this was on purpose made fun of his grades. I told Wyatt to move along, but Leo attacked him. This happened a lot, but it was never Wyatt’s fault. I felt bad for him, but I couldn’t help. The two boys fought on and on until Dr. Joseph finally stepped in and stopped the two. Wyatt was in bad shape after the fight, and he was mad because he didn’t even say anything to Leo. After Dr. Joseph made a long and dumb announcement, Wyatt was supposed to go to his office, but it wasn’t his fault. I told Wyatt that he shouldn’t listen to what Dr. Joseph said about not being violent because it was the only way to get Leo to stop.

Story 5: From Elliot’s Viewpoint: I couldn’t help but admire Wyatt’s tendency toward violence as I walked to my locker in between classes. I always wanted to be strong and muscular like him so I could stand up to people who bullied me. I was a grade below Wyatt's, but I still talked to him all the time. I was just going over to talk to him when Leo came into the hallway. Without Wyatt saying anything that mean to him Leo attacked. I thought this was awesome because Wyatt always won fights, which he got in a lot because people were always jealous of him, and he never did anything. Somehow, Leo took him by surprise and beat him badly. Ever since Wyatt got beat up, I haven’t liked violence because violence made him get in trouble. I told him, 

“Next time settle it with a rock, paper, scissors, shoot, but not violence.”

Story 6: From John’s viewpoint: I was Leo’s best friend, and we were the strongest kids in school, ready to beat up anyone who even looked at us in a mean way. Everything was going great when we got out of History class for the day and entered the hallway. The first person we saw was our biggest enemy Wyatt. Leo and I hated Wyatt, but we were just going to ignore him. But, of course, Leo had to start screaming at Wyatt for no reason which angered me very much. The second Leo was done screaming, he jumped on Wyatt. I hated it when Leo did this, which he did all the time. We were strong, but Leo just unreasonably beat kids up. I always mentioned to them that he should be less violent, but he never listened. Unfortunately for Wyatt Leo beat him up badly and he learned a lesson from this.

Story 7: From Alice’s viewpoint: I was just trying to get to my Honors geometry class when I was shoved from the side. 

“Watch where you’re going,” I shouted at the immature boys who pushed me. I hadn’t looked up from my phone displaying my awesome 4.0 GPA, but I heard yelling and decided to take a look. There was fighting, and I asked a random girl who was in pre-algebra what happened, and she said, 

“Wyatt just randomly attacked Leo for no reason at all,” she replied. I knew that Leo was a little crazy, but Wyatt attacking someone, he was always the one being attacked. I then asked the same girl,

“Why do boys always fight all the time? Don’t they know that violence isn’t the answer? I mean, just ignore the other person if they’re annoying you.” 

Story 8: From Sam’s viewpoint: I was so excited because I was on my way to study hall. I was trying to forget about the fact that I had just been written up a few minutes before. As I walked down the hallway Leo and Wyatt started a fight, but I just kept walking because if Leo saw me cheering on Wyatt then he would probably kill me as well. As I walked past Dr. Joseph in his office, I said, “Leo started a fight down the hall.”

“Ugh,” he said, “Why do they always have to choose violence.” Just after he said this, he and his two dogs, Birdie, and Greta, sprinted down the hall towards the fight.

Story 9: From Birdie’s viewpoint: I was a happy dog and I loved coming to school every Friday with Dr. Joseph. It was an ordinary afternoon in my crate in Dr. Joseph’s office. Of course, there was the usual write-up call, but other than that I was happily sleeping, when suddenly some small fat kid barged down the hall talking very loudly by himself. He stopped by Dr. Joseph’s office complaining about how loud two kids were fighting.

“Ugh,” he said, “Why do they always have to choose violence.” After he said this, he slowly stood up and seemed to transform into the Flash. A second later he dashed down the hallway to stop the fight. After he exited his office, Greta, my annoying brother, and I got out of our crates and slowly walked down the hall going to see the commotion. I wonder what’s going to happen to them I thought to myself.

Story 10: From Dr. Joseph’s viewpoint: I was so relieved after I had finished calling Sam’s parents about him being written up that I didn’t hear all the commotion in the hallway. I took a deep breath, but suddenly Sam burst down the hallway stopped by my office, and told me that Leo had started a fight. Great, I thought to myself, I’ve gotta stop another fight. I was so tired and was ready for the weekend, but I had to go stop some immature boys. 

“Ugh,” I said, “Why do they always have to choose violence.” I stood up took a breath, and sprinted down the hall, hoping that the fight hadn’t gotten out of hand.